Friday, June 9, 2017

Alabama carries out execution by lethal injection

Alabama put Robert Melson to death by lethal injection at
10:27 p.m. local time on June 8, 2017 at the death chamber in Atmore. It was
the second execution in Alabama in 2017, reported Reuters.

Melson made no last statement and there were no
complications with the execution, prison spokesman Bob Horton said.

Melson was convicted of murdering James Nathaniel Baker, 17,
Darryl Collier, 23 and Tamika Collins, 18, during a robbery at a fried chicken
fast food restaurant in Gadsden, about 115 miles northwest of Montgomery.

"It is my prayer that, with tonight’s events, the
victims’ families can finally have closure," Alabama Governor Kay Ivey
said in a statement.

As the restaurant was closing at about midnight, Melson and
another robber forced four employees to remove cash from the restaurant safe
and then ordered them into a freezer, court documents said.

Melson fatally shot three of the workers while the fourth,
Bryant Archer, was shot multiple times but survived, the documents said.

Archer identified one of the robbers as Cuhuatemoc Peraita,
a former employee at the restaurant, but did not know the shooter, they said.
Police later linked Melson to Peraita, who was 17 at the time of the killings
and too young to be executed under U.S. law.

Peraita was sentenced to life without parole. While in
prison, he killed another inmate and currently is on death row, according to
court records.

Lawyers for Melson tried to halt his execution, arguing a
drug in the state's lethal injection has been linked to troubled executions in
Alabama, Arizona and Oklahoma, where inmates could be seen twisting on death
chamber gurneys. They said its use violated constitutional protections against
cruel and unusual punishment.

About Matt

An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.